The present invention relates to medical emergency equipment, and in particular to a buckle for use in a device for supporting and controlling movement of a patient's injured pelvis.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,554,784, 7,008,389, and 8,192,383 disclose belt-like hip-girdling pelvis-stabilizing devices each including a buckle and a strap engaged through the buckle so as to place the belt into tension while it encircles a patient's pelvis. The buckle is arranged to engage the strap when a certain tension has been developed in the portion of the device encircling the patient, to prevent excessive tension in the portion of the device encircling the patient. So long as enough tension is retained in an outer part of the strap, extending beyond the buckle, engagement of the buckle with the strap maintains tension in the belt-like device the while the medical provider applying the device secures the outer part of the strap to the main body of the device.
In some versions of such a pelvis-stabilizing device the buckle produces an audible click when the correct amount of tension has been achieved, indicating that one or more prongs are exposed within the buckle and have entered into corresponding holes in the strap. If the outer end of the strap in such a buckle is not properly secured to maintain the amount of tension, however, a part of the buckle may move to hide the prongs, retracting them from engagement with the strap and allowing tension in the hip-girdling device to be reduced.
It is desired, then, to provide a pelvis-stabilizing device including a buckle mechanism that can be used to engage a strap to resist or prevent application of excessive tension, yet to maintain a desired amount of tension in the portion of the device encircling a patient and to facilitate keeping the buckle engaged with the strap while applying the device to a patient, so that tension is retained in the part of the device surrounding the patient while the outer end of the strap is being secured to a main body portion of the device.